April: Commission of the month

April’s commission of the month shows there can be a fine line between jewellery & weaponry! Think Game of Thrones crossed with catwalk couture.

The client was Vic, a lady who loves bold statement pieces, and who isn’t afraid to go one step further with her vivid style.

Vic was inspired by a slightly more impractical catwalk style spiked ring that had huge cone shapes protruding way past the length of the fingers. This ring, however, wasn’t made from a precious metal and was simply jet black. Wanting something with a bit more shine to it, Vic chose silver for this commission and briefed us to make a simplified version of this style, without losing any of its impact.

How did we create her unique commission?

To make the ring, our wax carver created several different sized cone shapes from wax. The cones were then cast in silver, multiple times to give us a choice of sizes and the ability to try different combinations to see how they worked together.

This was very important because the ring was articulated with each spike moving independently. Each one was made with a loop around the base which was to be joined to a second loop on the ring itself.

It took hours of arranging and rearranging to make the individual spikes move freely and to look quite random in their placement which was another of Vic's requirements. Once the perfect formation had been found, the ring went off to another of our workshops where the joins were lasered closed. This is a strong method of closing joins, and is a technique that also stops fire stain (where dark patches appear on heated silver). The final process was to polish the ring to a mirrored finish.

The great news was that Vic loved the ring and said it was even better than she had imagined it would be!

"I couldn't have asked for a better service from Stuart and his team and RING. He took my vision and made the most amazing reality! I wouldn't hesitate in recommending RING, as you know you'll be well looked after throughout the entire process."